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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Review: War of the Worlds: Goliath

This week at Amazing Stories, I review the animated alternate history film War of the Worlds: Goliath. This film has been on my radar for quite some time and I was happy to finally have a chance to sit and watch it. Before you check out my review, you can also read a preview of the film from Sean Korsgaard and also see my interview with Goliath's director, Joe Pearson.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

3 comments:

Even with the devastation and shock of the Martian invasion, I find the alternate 1914 too 21st-century like in some respects. Everyone who's an adult in 1914 had been born before the putative invasion in 1899 -- most of them long before. People rarely change their fundamental attitudes after their 20's.

Some changes, yes, but I think not quite that many. Also would Franz Ferdinand even be around?

Wow. Is this THE S.M. Stirling? Damn, I'm delighted that you took the time to watch my film, sir. You make a good point. I went for a big change in attitudes partly to stir the pot more, but also because something as devastating as a worldwide invasion/attempted genocide would have challenged a lot of cultural norms. WW 1 did this to a certain degree and WW2 really upturned the cultural apple cart. But a sudden and worldwide invasion by aliens, especially hungry aliens who kileed 160 million humans, would have/could have had a much stronger impact.

As for the Archduke, well, sure he might have been gone, but my thinking was that most of the pre-invasion powers would have reconstituted themselves by 1914. They would have lost some colonies and had to put down some internal rebellions. England for example went back into Ireland around 1906 and savagely suppressed an Irish free state that had taken hold.

The exciting thing about working with Adam Whitlatch on a novelization of WOTW:G is that we can expand on the histories and backstories of the unique world that the movie could only hint at.

But you're probably correct in that I may have overplayed the changes a bit. Certainly not everyone alive in the post-invasion 1914 that I postulate would be a Changling.

Glad you're enjoying my work. I'm not being hostile here -- just shaking it to see what rattles.

OK: one of the reasons the World Wars caused the changes they did was that they were European civil wars. They shook the morale of that part of the world, and weakened Europe vs. a vs. the rest of the planet -- most notably vs. a vs. the USA, and Japan. They also resulted in the October Revolution in Russia, a defining event of the next 80-odd years.

Having an invasion from -outside- the whole human political system would be unpredictably different in its overall effects, culturally-politically speaking. My guess would be that it would make most places more authoritarian and militarist and generally unpleasant; threats tend to do that.

Next point, there's a general rule that "unto them that hath, it shall be given".

If Earth people are reverse-engineering Martian technology on a large scale, this will overwhelmingly benefit those who are -already- the most technologically developed.

That is, it will increase the gap between the advanced and backward parts of the world, since the advanced parts suddenly get this massive boost in productivity which will be much slower to trickle down to other places.